£2.3m Scocco switch from Sunderland to Newell’s confirmed

Chris Young

Sunderland have been locked in talks with Newell’s for the last month for the sale of Scocco, just six months after the 29-year-old arrived at the Stadium of Light.

But despite late interest from River Plate, Newell’s have won the battle for Scocco’s signature after agreeing a £2.3million deal with the Black Cats.

Scocco is currently en route to Argentina, but Newell’s tonight confirmed the capture of the forward.

It will bring an end to ill-feted move to Sunderland for Scocco after Gus Poyet had originally envisaged big things from him.

Scocco failed to start a single Premier League game or find the net after arriving in a £3.2m move from Brazilian outfit Internacional in January and has been hankering for a move to Newell’s throughout the summer.

Poyet had hoped that a full pre-season would produce an upturn in fortunes for Scocco, yet Sunderland have instead cut their losses.

“My first idea, and I knew it would be difficult, was to use Nacho last season to help us get out of the problems we were in,” Poyet said earlier this week.

“It was always going to be difficult for a player who had played in Argentina and Brazil over the last year to come to the English Premier League

“We were in a fight and he’s not that type of player – he needed us to be controlling games in order for him to do his bit.

“The type of player he is, we were not playing to his strengths – he needs to be in a team that is on top in games

“So my idea then was to take the close season to improve the team and to improve Nacho in terms of him being used to the environment over here and the football itself.

“But there are options now and everything is being analysed, we will see what happens over the next few days.”